Sophocles and Aristotle: The Rules of Writing Writing, particularly story writing, is an art. When a person sets out to create a painting, there are certain rules of composition that need to be followed. In the art of writing, it is the same. There are rules of composition for writing and they must be followed by the writer. Some of these rules date back to Aristotle, who set down some rules for classical drama in his Poetics, a collection of class notes in which Aristotle attempted “to treat of Poetry in itself and of its various kinds” (1028). These rules, adhered to by great writers for centuries, were preceded by at least one great classical work: Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Interestingly, even though Oedipus the King came before Poetics, Sophocles’ play illustrates Aristotle’s rules for classical drama. Oedipus the King particularly displays a tragic emotion, a tragic character, and a tragic fall according to Aristotle’s rules. Aristotle says that a tragedy should “imitate actions which excite pity and fear, this being the distinctive mark of tragic imitation” (1036). There is certainly little as pitiful as Jocasta’s anguish as she begins to suspect the truth about the man she has loved (Sophocles 1317-1342). Of course, the most profoundly pathetic scene in Oedipus the King occurs off stage, in the bed chamber of the King and Queen. There, as described by the servant, Oedipus discovers Jocasta’s body where she hung herself from a rafter. He then takes the broaches from Jocasta’s dress and stabs his eyes with the sharp pins on the back of the broaches, over and over until his eyes were pulp (1600-1637). This is certainly sufficient to, in Aristotle’s words, “excite pity” (1036). Aristotle also describes a tragic character, a hero of sorts who is a good and virtuous person, but who destroys himself by a particular flaw or error ...
